TOKYO VANGUARD

Tokyo's marketing originals.

An editor's selection of independent Tokyo-based studios, brand-consulting firms, and creative collectives that aren't waiting for the next foreign wave — they're shipping the work that defines what Japanese marketing, branding and creative looks like next. This list grows over time.

CEKAINo. 01

Editor's Pickcekai.jp

A creative association — bound by one belief: we create good things.

CEKAI is a collective rather than a company. Designers, directors, writers and producers from across Tokyo's creative class assemble for each project — a structure that lets the work demand who's on it, rather than who happens to be free this week at the agency. The output spans editorial design, brand identity, film, and digital — a useful counterweight to the holdco model when the brief calls for craft over scale.

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SIMONENo. 02

Editor's Picksimone.jp

The Leading-edge Consulting Farm — vision, design, and technology, in one room.

SIMONE — based out of Ebisu West — operates as a brand-consulting firm rather than an advertising agency. The portfolio (UNIQLO, Cartier, SHISEIDO, NEWoMan, GINZA SIX, UNDERCOVER, NEIGHBORHOOD, Mame Kurogouchi, DESCENTE) reads as a who's-who of the Tokyo brand world. Their pitch: brand strategy first, then every customer touchpoint — visual, digital, retail, e-commerce — designed under one direction. Worth following for marketers whose remit is the brand as a whole, not the next campaign.

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Next Vanguard

Building the next chapter of Tokyo marketing?

Send your work, your thinking, or your launch to the editorial desk. We're looking for the next entries to feature alongside CEKAI and SIMONE.

Email the editorial desk